Who Are The Real Blue Jays?

Posted on: June 22, 2009 10:06 am

After dropping the first two games of the series against the major league worst Washington Nationals one has to wonder who the real Blue Jays are. The team won their first nine series of the season and were 27-14 after sweeping the White Sox in a four game set back on May 18th before heading to Boston to start a nine game road trip. This is where everything came unravelled.

The Jays scored a total of thirteen runs over their next eight games before blowing a game in Baltimore in which Roy Halladay had looked to have ended the teams eight game losing streak before Jesse Carlson entered the game and promptly gave up a five spot in the eighth inning. The team looked to have the game in hand again after Aaron Hill hit a two-run home run in the 10th until the bullpen once again imploded, giving up four runs in the bottom half of the inning and ending the nightmarish nine game road trip with not a single win. After leaving Toronto in first place and owning a 27-14 record, the team limped home to face Boston, now at 27-23 and trailing the Red Sox by two games.

Let's fast forward to the present. In the past two weeks the Jays dropped four straight, including being swept at home by the Marlins in interleague play, they then travelled to Philadelphia and took all three from the Phillies and following that dropped the first two in Washington before waking up last night to avoid the sweep. The common theme in all of this is the inconsistency of the offence. Last night the heroes were Lyle Overbay, who went 3 for 5 with home run and 5 rbi's, and Alex Rios who drove in three of his own. Rios has been coming on lately after being moved to the six spot in the order but I have to wonder if he is more comfortable there or if he has just found his groove, as many players do this time of year when the mercury starts to rise.

So who are the real Blue Jays and what do we make of their incosistent play? Are we looking at a team that can play with the best of them as witnessed in the Philadelphia series or are we looking at pretenders as we saw in the Florida and Washington series'? I think the answer lies in the bullpen. It doesn't matter how well Roy Halladay pitches if the bullpen finishes games for him like they did in Baltimore. The bullpen has to be better and if they are not this team has no chance.

Who Are The Real Blue Jays?

It's hard to tell at this point...I could state many if's, but's, should have could have's. As a Jays fan I can only say that I'm impressed with the season so far. The Jays were picked to finish 4th by all of the pundit's. The fact that they are one behind the Yankees is a great thing. It shows that this team does have the ability to contend. However, in order to continue to contend they will have to learn how to hit with RISP. If you look at our losses, 90% of them could have been avoided had they cashed in runners. That said, the Jays progress is a good thing in MLB's toughest division.GO...JAYS!!!!

The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of CBS Sports or CBSSports.com